THE 59th ZLIN FILM FESTIVAL KNOWS ITS WINNERS
The jury of the 59th Zlin Film Festival have watched all the films which were entered into this year’s competition and they have chosen the winners. As all the competition films have already been screened and the winners have been announced, the Zlin Film Festival is heading to its finale.
The most successful film of the festival was the German feature Rocca Changes the World, receiving awards from both the jury and the audience. Aside from the competition films, visitors have enjoyed screenings of non-competition films devoted to nature, people and countries reflecting the central theme of this year’s festival “Discover and Explore” and also a rich programme of supporting events, including travel talks and events centered around the explorer, Miroslav Zikmund.
The closing 59th Zlin Film Festival know its winners, the organisers have already announced the winning artists and their films. Four of them will be screened on Saturday 1st June. Many Czech and international celebrities, such as singer Karel Gott, actors and actresses Jan Hrušínský, Miluše Šplechtová, Anna Geislerová, Jan Potměšil, Klára Pollertová-Trojanová, Klára Issová, Jan Cina, British actress Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Milena Tscharntke from Germany and Irish actress Jordanne Jones have visited Zlin during the festival. Nearly 200 film delegations have accompanied and introduced their films to the festival.
The organisers are proud to have welcomed 2 600 accredited guests and more than 42 000 visitors, who visited cinemas during the eight festival days.
“We are happy that the Discover & Explore section found its audience and that film was once again the main focus of the festival. One of the reasons was that we have increased the number of screenings of individual films, which gave the viewers a chance to see more of them; also, film education does work well in Zlín and after leaving the cinema, filmgoers have plenty of places where they can spend some time together,”
explains Markéta Pášmová, the art director of the festival.
“We expect the total number of visitors in all of the nine days of the festival including tomorrow’s programme to be 110-115 000 people, which is slightly less than last year and can be attributed to this year’s bad weather,“
says festival director, Čestmír Vančura.
The Golden Slipper was awarded to My Extraordinary Summer with Tess (Best Feature Film for Children), Giant Little Ones (Best Feature Film for Youth) and to the Czech animated film Cloudy (Best Animated Short). The German Rocca Changes the World won four awards, including three jury awards and an audience award for the most successful feature film.
A special award for work in the field of children and youth cinema was also presented. The Golden Slipper for exceptional interpretation of songs in Czech films was awarded to singer, actor and artist Karel Gott.
During the opening ceremony, the executive director of ČT :D Petr Koliha received the Zlin Festival Grand Prix Award for long-term achievements in developing and presenting children and youth cinema.
This year's festival also introduced a new award in the European Debuts section – Karel Zeman Award - Special Recognition for Best Visual Concept. It was won by the German film Cleo – If I Could Turn Back Time.
film In the Zlín Dog Student Film section was awarded film Provence.
The 59th Zlin Film Festival has been inspired by the 100th birthday of the legendary traveller Miroslav Zikmund and has adopted a theme of “Discover and Explore”. The next & 60th annual festival will take place from Friday 29th May until Saturday 6th of June, 2020.
"Next year’s festival theme will be the celebration of our festival as such. We want to look back at its 60-year history. Not so much with nostalgia, it is rather a challenge for us to make it better for the years to come,”
said Čestmír Vančura.
Apart from Zlin, visitors could also enjoy watching festival films in other surrounding towns and cities. The 59th Zlin Film Festival will officially come to its end in Mikulov where the 3rd annual The Mikulov Echoes of the Zlín Film Festival takes place from 7th until 11th June.
For more informations read please Press release.